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Selig's term extended through 2012 at $15M per year

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Commissioner Bud Selig's contract has been extended by Major League Baseball's 30 owners for three years, taking him through the 2012 season.

The decision was made in an executive council meeting on Wednesday and was ratified by the collective owners on Thursday, making the new deal the biggest news of this year's first quarterly meetings.

Selig was asked to step out of Wednesday's executive council meeting as the select owners on that board voted to secure the new terms of his position. When the doors swung open and Selig returned to the room, he was awarded a loud standing ovation.

The owners endorsed Selig, who replaced the deposed Fay Vincent on an interim basis on Sept. 9, 1992, on the heels of the release last month of the Mitchell Report, the result of an investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball. At Tuesday's four-hour Congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, the Commissioner was commended by a number of elected officials for having the foresight to seek former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell to spearhead the investigation.

Selig, 73, just finished his 15th full season as Commissioner. As a business, the sport has never done better, setting records last season in gross revenue ($6.1 billion) and total attendance (79.5 million). Projections right now are for attendance to easily soar over the 80 million ticket mark in 2008.

Selig had said a few years ago that he would retire at the end of his current term, which was set to expire after the 2009 season. But last year he backed off that assessment a bit when asked about it, saying "you never say never about anything."
Similarly, in 2003 he also mused that he would probably retire at the end of his term, but on Aug. 17, 2004, the owners extended him through 2009.

Selig, who once owned the Milwaukee Brewers, was given the job as Commissioner permanently on July 7, 1998, and since then has presided over unparalleled labor peace and an economic sea change in a sport that was barely generating more than $1 billion a year in revenue at the time he took over as baseball's ninth Commissioner.

Under his watch, Selig fought for and won approval for Interleague Play, the consolidation of the American League and National League under one office, the three-division format and a Wild Card berth in each league, the unbalanced schedule, worldwide recognition of the sport, steroids testing of Major League players beginning in 2003 and home-field advantage in the World Series for the winning league in the All-Star Game.

For the third time, MLB is slated to open its regular season in Japan, with the A's set to match the defending World Series champion Red Sox in March at Tokyo Dome. Also in March, the Padres and Dodgers are projected to play exhibition games in Beijing, the first time Major League games will be played in China.

And in 2009, the second World Baseball Classic is scheduled to be played, capitalizing on its popular inaugural in 2006.

To be sure, it hasn't always been sugar and roses. Early on Selig's watch, MLB was fractured by the 1994 player strike that abruptly ended that season, led to the cancellation of the World Series and delayed the start of the 1995 season. But it was the last event of its kind.

In 2002, the owners and players avoided the ninth consecutive work stoppage over three decades when they signed a four-year Basic Agreement that distributed revenue more liberally from the big-revenue clubs to the smaller ones. Likewise in 2006, the two sides extended the agreement for six years, assuring labor peace through 2012, which coincidentally coincides with the expiration of the Commissioner's latest contract.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Boo!

"My mission is to be the ray of hope, the guy who stands out there on that beautiful field and owns up to his mistakes and lets people know it's never completely hopeless, no matter how bad it seems at the time. I have a platform and a message, and now I go to bed at night, sober and happy, praying I can be a good messenger." -Josh Hamilton

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

As a business, the sport has never done better, setting records last season in gross revenue ($6.1 billion) and total attendance (79.5 million). Projections right now are for attendance to easily soar over the 80 million ticket mark in 2008.

I have a problem with the numbers they throw out to support claims that baseball is doing so well. In order to make an accurate comparison to history, these numbers should be adjusted for inflation and also to take the total U.S. population into consideration.

As inflation persists and the total population continues to increase, it would stand to reason that "records" will continue to be set on a regular basis, regardless of who the commissioner is. These numbers have been on a fairly steady incline for the past 100 years.

Why don't they mention that total attendance was over 70 million in Pud's first year of 1993 and has consistently returned to that level only recently, and this while there are more teams than ever and a larger population than ever?

Oh, and should we mention that the National League began counting "tickets sold" as "attendance" in 1993? Before that, it was only the number of bodies that actually walked through the turnstiles. (When did the AL start doing this? I know they did it before the NL.) What is the no-show rate for the typical game? What is the no-show rate in September for teams that are hopelessly out of it? Furthermore, teams also now count tickets given away to charity in their "attendance" numbers.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Originally Posted by macro

I have a problem with the numbers they throw out to support claims that baseball is doing so well. In order to make an accurate comparison to history, these numbers should be adjusted for inflation and also to take the total U.S. population into consideration.

As inflation persists and the total population continues to increase, it would stand to reason that "records" will continue to be set on a regular basis, regardless of who the commissioner is. These numbers have been on a fairly steady incline for the past 100 years.

Why don't they mention that total attendance was over 70 million in Pud's first year of 1993 and has consistently returned to that level only recently, and this while there are more teams than ever and a larger population than ever?

Oh, and should we mention that the National League began counting "tickets sold" as "attendance" in 1993? Before that, it was only the number of bodies that actually walked through the turnstiles. (When did the AL start doing this? I know they did it before the NL.) What is the no-show rate for the typical game? What is the no-show rate in September for teams that are hopelessly out of it? Furthermore, teams also now count tickets given away to charity in their "attendance" numbers.

Of course by the same token, there are 150 games on tv in nearly every market, more things to do with your family than ever and yet they are still drawing huge numbers.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Could it be that they don't want to change until the steroids mess has run its course more fully? Plus, if they can his butt in the middle of this stuff, it would likely send an unwanted message to the owners' culpability in the scandal. They can lean on "Bud's grown our business," whether they're cherrypicking the basis for that assertion or not until the skies are a little clearer.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Originally Posted by macro

I have a problem with the numbers they throw out to support claims that baseball is doing so well. In order to make an accurate comparison to history, these numbers should be adjusted for inflation and also to take the total U.S. population into consideration.

As inflation persists and the total population continues to increase, it would stand to reason that "records" will continue to be set on a regular basis, regardless of who the commissioner is. These numbers have been on a fairly steady incline for the past 100 years.

Why don't they mention that total attendance was over 70 million in Pud's first year of 1993 and has consistently returned to that level only recently, and this while there are more teams than ever and a larger population than ever?

Oh, and should we mention that the National League began counting "tickets sold" as "attendance" in 1993? Before that, it was only the number of bodies that actually walked through the turnstiles. (When did the AL start doing this? I know they did it before the NL.) What is the no-show rate for the typical game? What is the no-show rate in September for teams that are hopelessly out of it? Furthermore, teams also now count tickets given away to charity in their "attendance" numbers.

Baseball is in great shape, except when it's time to renegotiate the CBA. It would be interesting to see breakdowns based on teams. I would suspect the disparity of revenue earned by teams in different markets has increased as some of the more valuable teams have been able to start their own cable networks and enter into marketing agreements with professional sports entities in other leagues to expand their reach globally while other teams are limited in how far they can go to expand revenues.

Burn down the disco. Hang the blessed DJ. Because the music that he constantly plays, it says nothing to me about my life.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Originally Posted by dougdirt

Of course by the same token, there are 150 games on tv in nearly every market, more things to do with your family than ever and yet they are still drawing huge numbers.

Yeah but they do the same thing with movies. This new movie made x million more than any older movie. We of course it did, it costs $10 to see the new movie and only $2 to see the older one so for the same number of viewers you would make 5 times as much. Not indexing for inflation always bugs me with a products whose price has gone up so much over the years like movies or the cost of sporting events.

Climbing down from the bridge, but keeping the torch lit until Dusty's fate is settled

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

Originally Posted by LincolnparkRed

Yeah but they do the same thing with movies. This new movie made x million more than any older movie. We of course it did, it costs $10 to see the new movie and only $2 to see the older one so for the same number of viewers you would make 5 times as much. Not indexing for inflation always bugs me with a products whose price has gone up so much over the years like movies or the cost of sporting events.

True, but movies are counted by money, not by tickets sold. Obviously tickets being 5 times as much as they used to be is one thing, but with baseball, they are looking at it in a tickets bought sense and not in the dollars spent on tickets sense.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

One factor that hasn't been mentioned in regards to attendance is that a lot of teams have decreased the seating capacity of their stadiums. Here in Cincinnati we went from 52K to about 43K when Great American BP was built. That is commonplace in other cities where they got rid of their cement doughnut like Atl, Pitt and St Louis.

I think Bud is slow to make decisions but overall he's been a good Commissioner. He does fight for the small market teams more than any other Commissioner has. After 15 yrs of Bud I'd have to say I like the guy.

Re: Selig's term extended through 2012

BOO!!

Selig you STINK!

Originally Posted by Scrap Irony

Calipari is not, nor has he ever been accused or "caught", cheating. He himself turned in one of his players (Camby) for dealing with an agent to get one Final Four overturned. The other is all on the NCAA and Rose. (IF Rose cheated.)

"Cheering for Kentucky is like watching Star Wars and hoping Darth Vader chokes an ewok"

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